


Black Swan

by vandynes (voguestark)



Series: Swan Lake [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Accidents, Before Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Best Friends, Boyfriends, Cheating, Darkness, F/M, Injury, No Smut, Peter is a Little Shit, Prequel, Teen Angst, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-14 12:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voguestark/pseuds/vandynes
Summary: Elizabeth Copper is at the top of her game, she has the perfect grades, an award winning smile and early admission to Yale, her dream school, but there's one thing she lacks. Peter Parker, her crush of two years and the fact that they're barely friends anymore. Elizabeth's sort of friend Liz Allen starts dating Peter Parker, Elizabeth doesn't want to lose, but then again Peter Parker and Elizabeth Copper aren't friends. So she decided to become someone else, someone who was fearless and reckless. Everyone Elizabeth was not.





	1. VENUS FLY TRAP

I walk down the street of Queens with my nose in a book and one earbud in my ear. I try to focus in on Halsey's vocals rather than the noisy traffic surrounding the streets. My music is interrupted by my phone's ringtone. I check my smart watch to see it's Liz calling. I answer even though I don't want to talk at the moment.

"Speak," I say as I cross the street and enter a sandwich shop. Liz isn't speaking, just squealing on the other end of the line. I walk to the counter and the cashier smiles at me.

"What can I get for you?" she asks with a wide smile. Liz is still squealing.

"Can I have a ham and cheese on white with ranch and lettuce. Toasted please," I order, "can you please talk or hang up?"

"Peter asked me to be his girlfriend!" Liz shouts happily in her phone.

"Oh, that's great. When?" I ask as I use my watch to pay for my sandwich. I dig a five dollar bill out of my pocket and stick it in her tip jar.

"Earlier today when he walked me home," she cheered. Peter Parker, how do I describe him. He was handsome and he actually had manners unlike Flash, who had no manners and just wasn't pleasing to my eye.

"That's nice, Liz," I say in a strained voice.

"Do you want to come over? I just bought the Vampire Diaries box set," she asks with a hopefully tone of voice.

"No, I'm almost home and I promised my mom we could watch this show she's obsessed with," I respond, a lie obviously. There's no way I'm going near Liz by choice now that she's with Peter. I had always dreamed that Peter could be mine one day, but a taller, prettier Venus Fly Trap named Liz Allen attracted Peter instead of me. I take my sandwich after it's ready and walk back the apartment as fast as the heavy backpack on my shoulder would allow. I unlock the door in a frenzy and shut the door behind me and lock it tight.

"How was school?" my mom asked as she cradled a plate of tortellini in her lap as she sits on the couch in front of the TV.

"It was okay, no trouble as usual," I reply as I sit at the kitchen island and unwrap my sandwich. I eat and savor every bit of the sandwich as I think about my current predicament. My life was perfect except Peter Parker and his stupid face had to weasel into the picture in the middle of the first grade, literally. I remember the day he arrived when pictures being taken and wedged himself between Liz and I back when we both went by Liz and threw his arms around my companion like he was her best friend while I stuck with his freakishly sharp elbows in my ribs and no arms around my shoulders. Ever since Peter had always seemed to be wedged in between Liz and I. Everywhere I go with Liz Peter Parker or at least talk about him followed and the worst part about it is that I loved him. Or at least I think I love him.

"Just pay attention in class, Lizzy. Yale will still be there when you're done with high school," Mom tells me and then bites down on a tortellini. She groans because the steaming plate of pasta is obviously too hot. Our relationship had been on the rocks since Mom refused to let me go to Yale early even though I already had enough credits thanks to all the summer school and online classes I take. I knew she would never let me go, not after what happen to my sister, Ryan.

"I know, Mom. I'm taking care of business," I reply and she lets out a satisfied huff, "so are we going to watch Firefly or what?"

▹

"Elizabeth, come down from there," my gym teacher, Mister Drake shouted as I climb the infamous rope that hangs from the ceiling of our gym.

I stop climbing and look down with a frown, "But you just told me to climb it."

"I said wait until I said go, follow directions," Drake replies as I sigh. I climb down, I hear Flash whistle. His friends snicker.

"Nice ass, Copper," he purrs in my ear, it sends shivers of disgust walking down my spine. I turn and look at him.

"Are you upset because you didn't get into Yale?" I ask innocently.

"How did you know?" he demands as red creeps onto his face.

"Because I got in, only one student per class gets into Yale early and I got in extra early," I say smugly.

"Quit your chattering," Drake says and blows his whistle so hard that spit flies out and hits the cheek of the girl I was supposed to be racing. Her face was twisted in disgust as she uses the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the saliva from her cheek in disgust.

"Race," Drake shouts and blows his obnoxious whistle again. I nimbly climb the rope thanks to years of gymnastics and a shit ton of upper body strength. I'm up the rope and back on the ground by the time she's to the top.

"Can I leave now?" I ask with a huff. Mister Drake stares me straight in the eye.

"Just wait on the bleachers, Copper," he answers and tears his gaze away from me. I let out an annoyed huff and walk away to the small section of bleacher pulled from against the wall. I sit down and the girl I raced joined me. I now watch Peter Parker, the object of my affection and Liz's new boyfriend.

"Haven't seen you around here," I say when the girl sits next to me. She looks at me with a face void of makeup like mine whenever I was in gym.

"That's because I usually skip this class," she explains in a monotone voice, "Drake is my stepfather, he is always trying to win my approval so he gives me an A anyway."

I hold my hand out for her to shake and introduce myself. "Elizabeth Copper." She stares at my waiting hand for a moment before shaking it with a bone-crunching grip.

"Michelle Jones. My friends call me MJ, but I don't have any at the moment," she tells me and lets go of my hand.

I twist my mouth to the side, a habit when I'm puzzled by something. "Why?"

"Don't need them," she says with a shrug.

"My sister used to feel that she didn't need any friends besides the one friend she had," I tell Michelle.

"What's wrong with that?" she asks in a perplexed tone, it's the only emotion besides the disgust from her stepfather's saliva.

"She's not well," I reply, but fail to elaborate.

"Have you ever been to detention?" she asks me, her face is void of any emotion once again.

"No." How course I hadn't. I'm Elizabeth Copper, I am 14 years old and technically already a student at Yale University.

"Are you free later?" Michelle asks me to which I nod my head yes.

"You're in for a treat."


	2. MEAN

"Elizabeth!" Liz shouts at the top of her lung as I speed walking across Midtown's large, grassy lawn. I sigh and keep walking as if I hadn't heard her. She shouts my name again so I turn and see her and Peter approaching speedily.

"Oh, hey Liz and Peter Parker," I say in a quiet voice when they stop in front of me. They both are a few inches shorter than me, but their hands clasped together in a tight grip makes me feel small.

"Where do you want to have lunch?" Liz asks in her usual cheery tone of voice.

"I'm not hungry," I say, it's a big fat lie. I am so hungry that if someone came too close I'm afraid I would try to eat them.

"Oh, maybe tomorrow," she says with her usual smile of pity she's given me since Ryan.

"Maybe," I say, but probably not. Not if I could avoid a whole forty-five minutes of Liz and Peter canoodling and being couple-y. I turn on my heel and set out for a bench on the edge of Midtown's campus near the hole in the chain-link fence around the school. When I get there I sit on the bench and watch the cars pass. When I hear my stomach growl I open my backpack and take out my leftover parts of sandwich from the day before. I eat in silence as I continue to watch cars pass. I'm comforted by the sound they make because it almost drowns out my lust for my best friend's brand new boyfriend.

Thinking of Peter with Liz made me think of him as a Ken doll. Well if Ken was a little bit on the short side and had brown hair and an actual penis. He was on the level of Barbie status that Liz had achieved in my eyes and everyone else's. Barbie and Ken, the perfect couple and I was Midge, Barbie's best friend that she left in a fucking hovel in Wisconsin when she moved into the Malibu dream house.

▹

"Why did you lie to Liz?" someone asks me in a demanding voice as I root through my locker looking for my Chemistry textbook. I turn and see one of Liz's groupie named Manon. She wears shocking pink lipstick and other neon colored clothes that belong in a different decade.

"What are you talking about, Manon?" I ask as turn back to my locker and find my missing book tangled in a hoodie.

"About lunch," she replies. I look at her. Her pale arms are crossed over her chest. She expects an answer. I frown sightly and meet her stare. I slam my locker shut, she jumps slightly.

"Why don't you mind your own business, Manon," I hiss at her in a nasty voice, "you think you're so entitled to things, but you don't have the slightest idea." She's almost seething when I finally turn away. I walk and roll my eyes. I now can expect a phone call from Liz later asking what was wrong and asking what she can do to help. Liz is too nice, or maybe that it's just that I'm too mean.

▹ 

"Why are we in detention?" I ask MJ as I pull down my shirt which had hiked up onto my stomach. MJ looks at me and I realize how refreshing it is to look into eyes that weren't rounded with charcoal eyeliner or whatever Liz and her gal pals used as mascara.

"We are here to capture their misery," she answers and pulls a beat up sketchbook out her open backpack along with a mechanical pencil. A kid with dark and tight curly hair lifts his head off the desk. For second he looks like someone I used to know, but I purge my mind of the thought.

"She's in here everyday," he groans and his head falls back down on his arms. MJ's usually rather emotionless face turns down in a slight frown. I click my tongue in the pregnant pause before MJ speaks again.

"I'm here by choice," she declares and stares down the top of his head. "Why are you always in here?" The body raises his head off the table and instead rests his chin on his folded arms.

"I keyed the principal's car, but they can't expel me if they don't want to piss off my dear old dad so detention or suspension is the way to go."

"I thought Flash Thompson's dad was the big donor to Midtown," I say. The boy's mouth pulls from a straight line into a tiny smile.

"Different moms, same player dad," he replies. "The name's Maxwell Carter-Thompson."

"Elizabeth Copper," I respond. Max pauses.

"Oh, I know. Everyone in school knows you and Ryan," he tells me. My blood is ice, no one dared to speak Ryan's name in my presence. He must not have known what happened or was just rude enough not to care. "Oh don't worry. It's all good things."

"Oh. Great," I reply flatly.

"Well," MJ says and shoots Max Carter-Thompson an icy look that could most likely take down the lava monster in Moana. "We have misery to sketch." I peek over at her page to see she already have the outline of Maxwell's face, hair and shoulders already drawn smoothly on the paper slightly grey from her probably shoving pencils inside it. I open my backpack and pull out my AP French notebook and open to a random fresh page that I would later have to rip out. I start drawing the first face that comes to my mind and after exactly fifty-eight minutes of complete silence I have a complete and detailed photo of Peter Parker side by side laughing with a drawn version of Liz. She's beautiful as expected. I scuff and shut my notebook closed. No one wanted me to be mean, but that's exactly what I was going to be.


	3. PRETTY FACE

"Are you alright? Manon said you snapped at her after school," Liz says over the speaker of my phone as I walk through the mall with three shopping bags strung on each arm.

"Sorry. I was in a bad mood because I had detention," I say in a cheery voice. When had I become such a liar?

"Really!? What for?" Liz asks in a louder voice that revealed her surprise.

"Got caught trying to sneak to get us sandwiches," I tell her. Another lie ripples the still puddle of honesty inside me.

"Oh, Elizabeth. You didn't have to do that," Liz gushes over the phone. Of course I didn't, which I why I really didn't.

"It's no big deal, I've served my time and now I'm just doing some shopping," I tell her as sit on bench near a fountain and sit my bags down.

"Without me?" Liz asks. After her family came into some money with her father's contract with the city. She had been given a charge card and a four thousand dollar limit much to her delight.

"It was sudden. I should have called, it's just a bit of odds and ends anyway," I reply. This is a genuine response, we never buy anything without the others approval. I watch people hustle and bustles up and down the mall floor and enter and exit shops.

"It's okay. It's just some clothes anyway," said Liz as I stare at the fountain clear blue water. It was rippling unnaturally. The water starts to shake. I look up to something big and unnaturally white fireballing through the sky. I don't have time to move before it lands on top of me.

▹

I lay underneath this rock dead, I know I'm dead because I'm viewing my crushed body as if I'm outside of it. My head is completely flat and my brain matter is fanned out from my destroyed skull.

Tears rush out the corner of my eyes as I stare at my dead body. I let out a choked sob, but no sound came out my mouth. I try to scream, there's sound this time. It sounds like I'm screaming under water.

The veins wrapped inside my body are white and I watch every broken bone heal and every snapped or crush tendon be restored to peak performance. Moments later I felt myself being sucked back into my body and wretched into unconsciousness.

▹

I wake lazily in complete darkness. I'm hooked up to all sorts of IV, wires and machines that regulate my breathing and monitor my heart beating that are terribly uncomfortable. I move my arms and uncover my eyes from the strange goggles attached to my head. It's obvious I'm in a hospital room, but it was nicer than any type of hospital room I've ever seen. I strip every piece of strange equipment off of me and get off the bed. I walk slowly toward a floor length mirror on the cold wood floor. I squint my eyes because it hurts when light hits them. I see my reflection. My physique is stronger and my chin and cheeks are sharper. I look sightly taller also, but it's probably because my hair is twisted up on my head into a bun. I look pretty, the type of pretty Liz is. My heart swells, I smile as I run my hand over my left cheek. The door opens, it's a women dressed in what I can assume is a nurse's outfit. When she sees me and drops her clipboard and she rushes away from her former position. I listen to her retreating feet slapping against the floor.

Moments later a doctor and my mother arrive in the room. My mother throws her arms around me and hugs me like she hasn't seen me in a thousand years. Her arms are around me so tight I can barely breathe.

"I've been so worried," she said as holds me.

"Have you heard from Dad?" I ask as she stops squeezing me like a ball python, but keeps me close to her with her hands resting on my shoulder.

"I let him know that you were hurt when I found out, but I didn't get answer back," my mother answers with a sigh. It's unsurprising. I hadn't seen my father in almost 6 years so why even bother. He wasn't there for Ryan when she damn near lost her mind, so would be here when I almost die.

"That's alright," I say as cling to her. She's my mother, she's the only person that knows me besides Ryan, but Ryan's not here.

"Ryan wants to see you though," my mom tells me.

▹

"Can you tell me about what you remember from your accident?" a doctor asks. I frown and wring my hands as I sit on the bed I was in and the doctor in a chair pulled up to the bedside. I know what happen. The sound of my skull smashing like like a nut inside of Ryan's nutcracker.

"I think I died," I say in a rushed voice. When the words leave my lips I can't even believe them myself. The doctor nods thoughtfully and writes something on her clipboard. I sit in silence as I realize the gravity of the situation and what it meant for me, but I don't know what it means. At least I have a pretty face.


	4. REAL FRIEND

I had got out the hospital two weeks ago when I decided to go back to school. I still hadn't seen Ryan though even though I had plenty of chances to. I wake and put on jeans and a sweater and a jean jacket along with Ray-Bans given to me by my mother because the sun hurt my eyes. I sit in my kitchen watching CNN with a bowl of frosted flakes in my hand.

"Today It has been almost six months since a meteorite containing strange material was confiscated by authorities destroyed the Little Italy mall in Midtown and injuring one person," a news reporter said in a strong voice. My mouth creases downward when a picture from my Instagram shows up on screen. "it is still unclear whether the victim, fourteen year old Elizabeth Copper lived or died." More stolen Instagram photos flash on the screen until they change topics. Well guess what I lived bitch.

I finish my cereal and leave the house before my mom could protest. I run to my school seeing that I would be late if I didn't rush. When I get to Midtown I enter through the front door after jumping a gate like a lot of late students. I walk through the hallways without running like a psychopath. I stop in my tracks when I see a plastic table littered with note and stuffed animals with my photo propped up in the middle with fake LED candles flickering in front of it. It hit me people thought I was dead. I hike my backpack whether up on my back and hurry away to Biology.

"Tragic," I say in a mocking tone.

"Have some respect," a girl says in a disgusted voice. I turn to see Manon. She wears an expression to match her face. I raise my sunglasses and look at her.

"Like I told. You haven't got the slight idea," I reply to her shocked expression and lower my sunglasses. I walk away down the hallway. You know the moment in idiotic high school movies when the girl gets a makeover and walks down the hallway in slow motion with her new found confidence. This was my slow motion moment, Elizabeth Copper back from the dead after months with no communication and I was looking damn good.

"Young lady, might I ask why you're wearing sunglasses inside the school building?" a teacher asks. I turn and look at him lamely. I take the sunglasses off my face.

"I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again," I reply and hook the sunglasses in the front of my shirt and walk to my locker.

As I walk down the hall I pretend nothing happened. Being around Liz had made me very good at pretending, so good sometimes I can even fool myself.

I shuffle through the busy halls with all the other students making their way to class. I find my class and sit down in the seat I hadn't sat in for a few months. I tap my finger on the desk as I stare forward as students shuffle in and take their seats.

Then, Liz appears in the door. Her eyes focus on me immediately and her eyes well with tears. She rushes over to me and throws her arms around me.

"Elizabeth, we thought you were dead!"

She hugs me tight as her tears drop in my hair.

"I'm sorry my phone was broken," I reply as I hug her back.

"You were just trying to get better. You shouldn't worry about anything, but being happy and healthy," Liz tells me as we break our hug.

"I missed you, Liz," I say as I look into her eyes.

"I missed you too."

As I looked into Liz's eyes I realized that she really was my best friend. All this time she was my only real friend.

▹

I awoke to the sound of crackling electricity. I look at my hands. There's electricity dancing through between my fingertips. I curl and uncurl my fingers slowly, but the electricity doesn't go away. A smile cracks on my face.

Without hesitation I get out of bed and puts on outside clothes. I climb out my bedroom window onto a fire escape. The electricity has spread to my forearms. I rush down the fire escape, but with one wrong step I fall and I stick my arms out to brace my fall. I notice that I didn't hit the ground. I was floating. I blink my eyes in disbelief and joy.

"No fucking way," I say excitedly before dropping to the ground face first. I limber to my feet with a smile. The electricity now danced up and down my body, I could feel the power flowing through my veins and dancing under my skin. I stretch out a hand toward a potted plant, a blast of lightning leaves my hand and the pot explodes into a million pieces.

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to float again as hard as I can. When I open them I am no longer have both feet on the fire escape and is floating three inches above it instead. I leans back and I move backwards. Without another thought I land on the fire escape. I run up to the top fire escape and hold the railing and looks over the edge to the busy Brooklyn street alone. Without another thought and with a smile painted on my face. With my body still brightly painted with dancing electricity I vault myself over the railing and dive toward the busy street below.


End file.
